Alleged Olney shooter given partially suspended sentence

A defiant Kay Lynn Johnson accused her husband at her Jan. 25 sentencing of lying under oath and beating her in the moments before she allegedly shot him in the stomach last year.

Prosecutors brought Johnson, 64, up on a felony assault with a weapon charge following the Sept. 26 shooting on the couple’s Olney property. She pleaded guilty by way of an Alford plea in December after striking a deal with prosecutors.

In an Alford plea, a defendant maintains their innocence, but acknowledges a jury likely would find them guilty.

A tearful Johnson allowed Dec. 7 that a guilty verdict was “a possibility” while answering questions related to her role in the shooting, which left her husband hospitalized. Her demeanor had changed by Jan. 25, when she pledged to appeal the case.

“A lot of the statements he’s made are lies,” she said of the victim when allowed to address the court. “He’s a very compulsive liar.”

She also told Judge Robert Allison her husband hit her in the face first and then beat her after she fetched a gun. Her account at sentencing lined up with an early version of events she gave authorities. According to court documents, she initially told dispatchers she shot her husband after he began beating her.

She later allegedly told responding deputies that she grabbed the gun during an argument over real estate. She had hoped to frighten him into agreeing with her, according to court documents.

Clayton Johnson, her husband, told investigators he was working in his shop when he turned around to find his wife aiming a gun at him. The two fought over the weapon and he eventually made it into his truck and to a neighbor’s property, according to court documents. But not before he suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Testifying for the prosecution at his wife’s sentencing, Clayton Johnson told the court that he spent three-and-a-half hours on the operating table and a week in the hospital after the shooting.

“The bullet is still in there,” Clayton Johnson said, reporting suffering stomach pains in the wake of his surgery. “They never got the bullet out.”

He told the court his wife of 11 years needed help. The couple, now seeking a divorce, began arguing when she started hearing strangers on the pair’s property, Clayton Johnson said. Outside of a few noises, he never saw anyone on their land, he testified.

He described her as growing increasingly angry over time.

“Well, I hope she gets help,” he said. “She needs to get help real bad.”

Under questioning from defense attorney Timothy Wenz, Clayton Johnson acknowledged that the couple argued through the years and admitted hitting her during the shooting. He maintained he never struck her otherwise.

“I never hit her at all except for the day she shot me,” he said, responding to a question from Deputy County Attorney Alison Howard, who prosecuted the case.

Wenz argued that Kay Lynn Johnson should receive a suspended five year sentence, citing a nonviolent criminal history. Howard stuck to the recommendation in the plea agreement: 10 years with the state Department of Corrections with five suspended.

Prior to handing down his sentence, Allison noted the challenge in sorting out a relationship that had “gone bad” through courtroom testimony and offered his critique of an Alford plea.

“It has a sort of unfulfilling element to it, because someone doesn’t take accountability for [the crime],” he said, noting that the court still treats it as though the case went to trial and the defendant was found guilty.

He also worried that Johnson suffered an undiagnosed mental health condition.

Ultimately, he gave Johnson an eight-year sentence with the state Department of Corrections with three of those years suspended. She also received credit for 125 days of time served.

“… I think there’s something going on, that there’s a mental health issue here,” Allison told Johnson. “I’d like to see you get some help for that.”

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430.